Forensic scientist Valerie Tomlinson believed that the brothers had held two pieces of black plastic, said to be fragments of knife handles, found near Mr Hoe’s body.

She said one carried DNA which matched Terry Reed’s.

The other carried DNA matching David Reed’s, and this piece matched a 20.4cm knife blade found in a drain at the back of Mr Hoe’s house.

She said the chances of a DNA match if the profiles came from someone else unrelated to the men were about one in a billion for Terry Reed, one in 500 million for David Reed.

Mr Atkinson said Peter Hoe had told him of trouble with David Reed. “He said David Reed came up to the house, tried to test him, threw a few punches at Peter. He just said he’d given him a couple of clips and sent him wobbling down the road.”